Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Courtney Love/Hole

Jennifer has feelings about Courtney Love that she’d like to share with you.


I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS, OKAY: Courtney Love

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I have not always had a lot of feelings about Courtney Love. Let’s just be blunt and honest: I first learned about her because I was a Nirvana fan and she was Kurt Cobain’s wife. I was dimly aware of Hole – bear in mind at this time (1992) the only music magazine I read was Circus, and I got the rest of my music news from MTV, and then mostly from Headbanger’s Ball — but I didn’t have any particular opinions about her or their music. Following the release of Celebrity Skin in 1998, I would develop an appreciation for their sound, though even then I only really listened to the title track, and that on the radio. I always meant to buy the record, but never quite got there.

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Getting back to Nirvana for just a minute: I can tell you where I was, when I got the news that Kurt Cobain was dead. I was 19, and in college. It was a beautiful spring day. The grass was a particularly vibrant shade of green and the air was cool on my face. I wasn’t surprised – how long had we been watching him struggle? — but I felt like I had been punched in the heart. And next to my grief for him was grief for her, suddenly the most famous (soon to be infamous) rock widow of my generation. Since then I have watched, with the rest of the world, as she exploded and imploded, rising and falling in various measures.

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Which slingshots us back to 1998, to a record I didn’t listen to until three months ago, and, which, once I had heard it all, I was perversely glad I had put it off. Love’s own grief and rage and terror is in every line and note of Celebrity Skin, and I’m not sure I could have borne that, in 1998. Even in 2010 it’s a little bit difficult to listen to; my heart still clenches at I had to tell them you were gone, because she did, and she paid bitterly for it, in many different ways.

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Which brings me to the new record and the band with new faces but the old name. Nobody’s Daughter is angry in some (different) ways, and contemplative in others. It is fierce and joyful and beautiful and sad all at once. As for the band, well, I have only ever seen Hole twice, both times this year, so again, let us be blunt and honest: these changes don’t bother me. But I wholly sympathize with the people who are enraged or disappointed (or both), or who may have other, more mixed feelings on the issue. I kind of feel the same way about the band currently calling itself Guns n’ Roses. I’m glad everyone involved is alive and well and making music but . . . that is not my Guns n’ Roses.

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That said, I am filled with a very particular kind of fierce joy, hearing Courtney Love sing again, hearing those big, loud, defiant, grungy chords rippling out through the speakers. My tiny black heart expands in a very specific way while she’s telling us mildly scandalous stories between songs, shutting down hecklers, and covering Closer for the express purpose of trolling Trent Reznor. Which, I would like to add, she did as a torch song, and blended it neatly into Man That Got Away by Judy Garland.

It’s not nostalgia – I am grateful, on a daily basis, to never have to be 20 ever again — as much as it is the delight of encountering a first love or an old friend in a new place. In 2008 I came back to being a rock fan after the better part of a decade spent away, and after two years in this sometimes baffling new musical reality, as much as I love the new sounds and the new faces, I retain a deep and abiding affection for the old ones, less seen but no less loved.

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And as for Courtney Love, all of this time that I didn’t really know her, I had missed her, and I didn’t realize it until I was standing in the pit last week. Now that she’s back, radiant and ascendant if periodically kind of wobbly, I hope her trajectory continues to be upwards, because I want to stand in the pit and sing with her again, and again, and again.

–Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Empires

This week, Jennifer hangs out with familiar friends: loud guitars.


Looking back over my previous entries, I’ve been talking about a lot of pop music. This week I’m changing it up a little bit, and swinging the pendulum back towards my old familiar friend, rock and roll. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Empires:

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Tom Conrad

They are from Chicago, but last week their tour stopped in New York, at the Studio at Webster Hall. The light was really, really bad; I actually got most of my best pictures while they were setting up.

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Sean Van Vleet

They have two records out — Howl and Bang — and they are both excellent. While I was watching them play I was thinking about how, exactly, I was
going to explain their sound to the Internet. The phrase that came back to me over and over again was “punch drunk love-affair” which, all right, that might be kind of insufferable (again – sorry!) but it’s the best I can do. To me they sound like afternoons spent wandering amid dark shelves covered in whispery plastic contemplating past misdeeds (My Poor Lover), hot summer nights punctuated by fireworks (Under the Bright Lights) —

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Ryan J. Luciani (drums) and Max Steger

— the point where you realize you’ve gone down the rabbit hole for someone (and don’t even care) (Voodooized), a bad love affair or a love affair gone bad (Damn Things Over), and post-disasterous romance roars of defiance and survival (Bang and Hello Lover). Their noise is a big noise, a solid one, like a big wave, but it’s also melodically interesting. And it doesn’t sound like anything else out there, on the radio right now. So if you want something new and big and raw and daring, you should check them out.

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Conor Doyle (bass) and Ryan J. Luciani

Finally, a special note for photography enthusiasts: the deluxe digital edition of
Bang comes with a “making of” video and over two dozen fabulous digital
photographs taken by Tom Conrad .

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Gold Motel, Travie McCoy, The Young Veins

This week, Jennifer takes a break from shutterbuggin’ to give a run-down of some of the music she’s digging on currently.


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Gold Motel, Summer House

Summer House, the first LP from Gold Motel, incorporates songs from their self-titled EP, which was released earlier this year. Perfect in My Mind and Don’t Send the Searchlights have been in heavy rotation on my iPod since then, and having now heard the new songs, I expect We’re On the Run will be joining them in the future. Led by Greta Morgan (formerly known as Greta Salpeter, when she was with The Hush Sound) Gold Motel specializes in bouncy pop fun, though if you listen closely some of the lyrics have a bit of a melancholy edge. Still, this record is like summer camp for your ears, including both daring sun-drenched adventures and doomed summer romances.

Tour Status: Their tour with Skybox is currently winding down, but they will be playing two festivals in Chicago in July: The Great Illinois Performers Festival (July 10) and the Local Music Revolution Festival (July 11).

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Travie McCoy, Lazarus

Travie McCoy is the front man for Gym Class Heroes, and in the video above, he’s the one driving the car. This is his first solo effort, and is the record he made after a particularly rough year. Some of the songs are joyful and fun (Billionaire, We’ll Be Alright), and some of them are frankly kind of wrenching and hard to listen to (Don’t Pretend); so far my personal favorites are Need You and Superbad (11:34). I’m also developing a growing affection for Akidagain which includes references to G.I. Joe, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Groundhog Day. Overall I think I like it because it really does reflect the internal chaos of pulling yourself together after your life has been upended: some days are good, some days are bad, some days you just would like your most complex decision to be about what kind of ice cream you want for dinner.

Tour Status: Starting in July, he’ll be hitting the road with Rihanna and Ke$ha as part of the Last Girl on Earth tour.

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Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t, The Young Veins, live at Bonnaroo, by mym2c

The Young Veins, Take a Vacation!

When I went to their New York shows in April , they only had two songs out. They released several more through the late spring, and then the full record finally dropped earlier this month. (It’s currently streaming on their MySpace as well.) It is just under 30 minutes of 1960s-inflected beach rock-flavored tales of love and other misadventures. It’s actually kind of difficult for me to narrow down only one or two favorites, but new tracks I’m particularly fond of include Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won’t, Heart of Mine, and the iTunes bonus track, a cover of the Everly Brother’s Nothing Matters But You, which Ryan Ross and Z Berg (The Like) sing as a duet.

Tour status: Currently wending their way across North America with Black Gold and Rooney.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Like

If Jennifer’s profile below of the Like intrigues you, you can listen to their new album at Spinner.


Reasons why I love The Like:

1. Snappy songwriting. I was initially hooked by Release Me, a subtle twist on a familiar trope, in which it is the girl begging the boy to let her go before she breaks his heart. I was further intrigued by Wishing He Was Dead, a song for women wronged everywhere, and, the other side of the same coin, He’s Not A Boy, simultaneously an appreciation of bad boys and a reminder that you can never, ever change them. (All of those songs are on their new record, also called Release Me, which came out yesterday.)

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Z Berg, at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ

2. They do interesting things with percussion, from the drum intro to Fair Game — a dramatic, fast beat that expands (but doesn’t slow down) to meet the guitars and the organ – to the combination drums/handclaps that kick off Release Me. The drums are also strong in their early work; one of my favorite songs from their Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? (2005) is June Gloom, mainly for the steady, rolling beat.

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Annie Monroe (far left) and Z Berg, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

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Laena Geronimo, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ

3. In addition to the interesting drums, there are beautiful harmonies, with Z Berg periodically soaring over the rest of the band. Also, basically, all of their songs make me want to dance around the kitchen and sing along. I particularly enjoy the subtle modern bite of the lyrics next to the retro-sweetness of the music.

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Laena Geronimo, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

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Tennessee Thomas, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ

4. Their whole-hearted commitment to ’60s style and glamour. Like their sound, their look is distinctive, different, and refreshing.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Cadillac Sky

More Cadillac Sky = more good. Jennifer shares a little of her experience with the guys during their New York show. Panda says this show was off the hook, and I don’t doubt it for a second.


Continuing the Cadillac Sky theme for this week, here’s some pictures from the show I went to over Memorial Day weekend. They played at Union Hall – the random picture of the old lady that was hanging on the wall behind the stage has sadly disappeared – and it was a rockin’ good time.

Note: Union Hall tends to be dark, and I was struggling a little bit with the low light. I do take pictures in color, I promise, it just happened that this time the black and white ones were (mostly) the ones that came out the sharpest.

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Bryan Simpson

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Matt Menefee and David Mayfield

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Matt Menefee and Andy “Panda” Moritz

At one point Dave, Bryan and Ross came down off the stage and into the crowd to do a cover of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie, which they made into a wrenching mountain ballad. By the end the whole room was singing along.

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Dave Mayfield, Bryan Simpson, and Ross Holmes

The absolute best cover of the evening, though (possibly of the year) was “Video Killed the Radio Star” done “B for Bluegrass”-style, which I didn’t photograph because I was too busy being filled with joy. Later in the evening there was also an epic guitar/fiddle battle, and I was pretty sure I detected bits and pieces of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” amid the cascading flurries of notes.

And finally, here they are doing a Stanley Brothers song barbershop quartet-style:

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— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Miss Derringer, Cracker, The Reverend Horton Heat

This week, Jennifer shares shots from what is possibly the most perplexing tour line-up ever, Cracker and the always-great Reverend Horton Heat. Opening on this stop was Miss Derringer, led by lowbrow artist Liz McGrath.


Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Miss Derringer :

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Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade

And in color:

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Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade

They are, in fact, as hot and as sharp as their namesake pistol. That was terrible, wasn’t it? I’m sorry. But they really are. They came out to crowd that was hanging back, sitting on the mysterious couches (which I had never seen in the High Line before, it was most perplexing) and proceeded to get a whole lot of people up and dancing. Possibly I have seen Grease a few too many times, but I found myself thinking this music is begging for a floor full of girls in poodle skirts getting flipped up and over their sweethearts’ heads. Tough girls, that is, in black poodle skirts with blood-red petticoats and lipstick to match.

Anyway, the High Line has a nice big stage, and they were spread out across it. Here’s the guitars on the other side:

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Nick Bacon (guitar) and Sylvain de Muizon (bass)

And the drums:

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Cody James

They were followed by Cracker , who apparently have a new record out:

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Johnny Hickman, David Lowery

And then it was time for the Reverend:

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And in color, with a little secret smile:

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The set was a mixture of old (Bales of Cocaine) and new (Don’t Take the Baby to the Liquor Store), and at one point, he had people slam-dancing to Bill Haley and the Comets. That right there kind of sums up why I love this band. Anyway, in closing, here is Johnny Hickman (Cracker) hamming it up on the electronic harmonica:

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— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Butch Walker and the Black Widows/Locksley

This week, Jennifer takes a chance on Butch Walker, with some lovely results.


Butch Walker and the Black Widows/Locksley, Webster Hall, 5/20/2010

I kind of decided to go to this show on a whim. Up until relatively recently I’d been neutral to indifferent about the music of Butch Walker, but then he came out with I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart and I developed a fondness for Pretty Melody, because, well, it does have a pretty melody. And it kind of sounds like a backwoods orchestra creaking to life, one instrument at a time. So when his name popped up in one of my concert alerts I thought all right, let’s go see what this is all about.

I am really, really glad I went, because it was an incredible evening. He played a variety of instruments, including a banjolele – an actual cowbell also made an appearance, though it was played by guitarist Chris Unck – and we danced in the pit, singing along and clapping. He covered Weezer and Hall & Oates, and at one point towards the end, jumped in to the crowd and led us in a variation on the Twist, in order to drown out the muffled sounds of disco coming from the floor below us. It was crazy, and hilarious, and one of the best shows I’ve been to for a while.

But to begin, properly, at the beginning, the first band on the stage was Locksley . Their MySpace genre is “garage/pop/rock”, but apparently they have also previously classified themselves as “doo-wop punk” which I think is far more accurate. They have the three-part harmonies down, and also they look like they might have just wandered off the set of a remake of Grease, from the top of their rolled sleeves right down to the curve of Jordan Laz’s ducktail.

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Jesse Laz and Jordan Laz

Live they tend to drift more towards the “garage” and “punk” end of the spectrum, with excellent results. They put on a great high-energy show, which last Thursday included a particularly good cover of The White Stripes’ Hotel Yorba and an instrumental snippet of Gary Glitter’s Rock and Roll No. 2.

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Kai Kennedy and Sam Bair

And then it was time for Butch Walker and the Black Widows.

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Butch Walker

He played the first two songs a) on the piano and b) practically in the dark, and none of my pictures of it came out very well. This one is from somewhere around song 3 or 4, after he had moved to the middle of the stage. I was particularly fond of the use of the fairy lights on stage.

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Chris Unck and Fran Capitanelli

I was on the rail on the far left, so a good many of my pictures are of these two gentlemen. In addition to the guitar, Chris Unck also played the lap steel, maracas, the tambourine, and, as noted above, the cowbell.

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Jake Sinclair

I spent most of the evening thinking of Jake Sinclair as Jake the Elusive Bassist, although by “elusive” I really meant “standing on the other side of Butch Walker where I can’t get a clear shot of him.” This is one of the better pictures I did manage to take. The gentleman behind him is Dr. Pat the Tour Doctor, who came out in the middle of the show to sit in and join the fun.

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And, in conclusion, two more of Butch Walker. The one above is him perched on the edge of the stage at the end of the main set, after a raw and powerful performance of Best Thing You Never Had. I do love the stark stillness of it, but the show didn’t end on that note. So in closing, I give you the one below, from the encore, from not long after he informed us that “Tiny guitar means party!”:

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— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: An NYC Hodgepodge

Today, rock ‘n’ roll photog Jennifer shares a collection of her favorite locals (her locus being New York City).


A selection of my favorite New York City bands:

Atomic Tom (Brooklyn)

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Luke White


These were taken at the Canal Room last fall, and I was actually too busy dancing to take that many pictures. I’ve picked my two favorites to share today: the lead singer, striking a classic rock star pose, and the drummer, because I’m particularly fond of the light in that picture. The music is more rock than pop, and they have a new record coming out sometime soon. In the meantime you can listen to their new single at their MySpace.
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Tobias Smith


Black Gold (Brooklyn)
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Eric Ronick


These are from a show at the (new) Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Also on the bill: Hunter Valentine, Des Roar (more on them below), and Girl in Coma. I really didn’t know much about the other bands, and was for some reason expecting a mellow show. I was pleasantly surprised to be totally wrong. All of the bands, but especially Black Gold, brought the high-quality, high-energy rock and roll to the stage. The songs on their MySpace are a reasonable representation, though live the guitars and the keyboards roll and soar in a much more muscular way. In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing them again this summer, when they go out on tour with The Young Veins and Rooney.

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Than Luu


The Crash Moderns (New York, NY)

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Danny Roselle


I first encountered this band last summer at an acoustic evening at Angels and Kings. The pictures I took of them that night are kind of god-awful. These are from a later show at the Canal Room – the same night as the Atomic Tom pictures above – and while their aesthetic is kind of gothy, their sound is pure fun pop. They will definitely be on my road trip play list, as it is the best kind of music for driving around in the sun with the windows open.
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Mikey Vranek (guitar), Tommy Eichmann (keys)

Des Roar (New York, New York)

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Ben Wolcott


And now for something completely different . . .

Unlike the other three bands, Des Roar has much more of a rockabilly feel, kind of like the Reverend Horton Heat, if the Reverend were singing songs about Ted Bundy and not bales of cocaine or the virtues of steak. I also spent a lot of time dancing and not taking pictures during their set.

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Alan O’Keeffe


–Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: HIM/We Are The Fallen/Dommin/Drive A

Usenet, anyone remember that? That’s where the Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog, Jennifer, and I met, at a little place called alt.gothic. This week, Jennifer goes back to her gothy roots.


And now, jumping back to the present, with a show I just went to last week: HIM, along with We Are The Fallen, Dommin and Drive A, at Irving Plaza. I was shooting from the balcony, so there are probably better pictures out there. But these are mine, and here are some of my favorites:

Drive A was the lone punk band on the bill. They bounced around the equipment-crowded stage to the best of their ability, and they got the only proper mosh pit of the evening. (Tangent: I love watching the pit form and surge from the balcony. My black little heart grows three sizes when the crowd bells out and the circle coalesces and starts to spin.) At one point the lead singer hopped down to stand on the barrier:

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and later he jumped into the crowd:

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Next up was Dommin , who have declined to classify themselves on MySpace, but I can tell you they are high-quality gothabilly with a hint of Elvis. Favorite song: My Heart, Your Hands, which is magnificent and rolls like a mighty wave, live.

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I think those might be skulls hanging off the keyboard, but I’m not entirely sure:

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And then there was We Are The Fallen , which I thought was Amy Lee (Evanescence) with a new band, but is actually Evanescence without Amy Lee. Oops. Sorry, Carly Smithson. I did enjoy your cover of Like A Prayer! I am also sorry most of the pictures I took of you were kind of awful. Here’s one for general flavor:

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And then, at long last, HIM , who are a thing of beauty and a joy forever, and seemed to be as delighted to see us as we were to see them. This is mainly a picture of the stage, with a hint of Ville Valo in the middle there, but I like the color, and also the spots of cellphone/camera lights:

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I tried to get some close-ups, but that didn’t work out so well. This one of Linde probably came out the best:

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And then there’s this one, of Ville Valo and Migé:

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It was, overall, a wonderful show. The music was great – atmospherically gothy but not a ponderous doom fest — and they did two fabulous covers, one of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game and Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell. Ville Valo was chatty and charming between songs, teasing his bandmates and occasionally telling jokes with no punchline, and I basically spent the whole set grinning at them dopily, clapping along and trying to dance and/or headbang without knocking into anyone standing next to me.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Felice Brothers

This week Jennifer brings the extra-happy by featuring NTSIB favorite the Felice Brothers. I’ll be seeing the boys again on Monday, and Jennifer and I both look forward to rocking Lebowski Fest with them (and the wonderful Digger from Take This Bread) in July.


The week after I saw the Gin Blossoms, I continued my January theme of “wandering around unfamiliar places in the dark and bitter cold looking for concerts” with a trip to the Boulton YMCA in Bay Shore, Long Island to catch the Felice Brothers. There were no scantily-clad college students or gigantic mixers, but I did encounter a lighthouse small enough to fit on a traffic island. It did not light my way home, or, more importantly to the venue, and I was both lost and running late, so I didn’t take its picture. Perhaps next time, Bay Shore. Anyway, I did eventually make it to the show:

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I was expecting Ian Felice to be about twice as old as he actually is, and three times as grizzled. I was really, truly sure they were the opening band until he started singing. (NB: there was no opening band.) I would like to add here that their set list was written on the back of that pizza box. I don’t know if it was pizza from the place next to the venue, but the pizza from that place is excellent. Especially when you are frazzled and your fingers have been numb for ten minutes.

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James Felice and Christmas having an accordion-bass party

The Boulton YMCA is set up so that the front row is really pretty close to the stage, which is excellent for photography but awkward for dancing. Though when James Felice insisted we all get up and do the dance moves for Whiskey in my Whiskey we did our best to comply.

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James Felice rocking his accordion while Greg Farley plays the living daylights out of his washboard.

These last two of Ian Felice and Christmas are wholly self-indulgent. I just really like the light, or the way they’re standing, or both:

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— Jennifer